Don Letts (born January 10, 1956 (1956-01-10) (age 52)) is a British film director and musician. He is credited as the man who through his DJing at clubs like The Roxy brought together punk and reggae music.[1] Letts was born in London, England. In 1975 Letts ran the trendy London clothing store Acme Attractions selling, "electric-blue zoot suits and jukeboxes, and pumping dub reggae all day long."[2] Letts was deeply inspired by the music coming from his parents' homeland Jamaica, in particular Bob Marley. After seeing one of Marley's gigs at the Odeon in Hammersmith (June, 1976) he was able to sneak into the hotel and spent the night talking and befriending Marley.[3] By the mid 70s Acme had quite a scene attracting all the like of the Clash, the Sex Pistols, Chrissie Hynde, Patti Smith, Deborah Harry and Bob Marley. " Marley ... come by because he knew he could get a good draw from the thriving black-market action that also went on in Acme. " — Don Letts [2] Seeing the crowd at Acme then promoter Andy Czezowski started up the Roxy, a London nightclub during the original outbreak of punk in England, so that people could go from the store and have some place to party, Lett's was the first house DJ. As few bands of that era had yet recorded, there were limited punk rock records to be played. Instead, Letts included many dub and reggae records in his sets, and is credited with introducing those sounds to the London punk scene, which was to influence The Clash and other bands. As a tribute, he is pictured on the cover of the album Super Black Market Clash.He was able to use the fame and money from DJing and the Acme story to make his first movie, The Punk Rock Movie (1978). Punk Rock Movie documented the original UK punk rock movement. Letts quit the retail business to manage the band,the Slits. He was able to get the Slits to open for the Clash during the White Riot tour. While on the White Riot tour he decided that management wasn't for him but continued to shoot material for The Punk Rock Movie. [4] Letts went to Jamaica for the first time when after the Pistols broke up Johnny Rotten decided to escape the media frenzy by going with Richard Branson to Jamica to check out the scene. It was this trip that Branson was inspired to start up Virgin's Frontline reggae label.[2] " I guess he thought that since I was black and Jamaican - well, sort of - he'd be in good hands. Little did he know that the closest I'd been to Jamaica was watching The Harder They Come at the Classic Cinema in Brixton.

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2. the former brother bill says:

   April 2, 2008 at 3:51 pm

   always knew you’d be a star. nice one fellow wimbledonian. and nice job wit the legend – don letts.

   bnm

   Reply
3. Rosie says:

   August 24, 2007 at 4:55 am

   Excellent interview my favorite part was when “Mr.Letts” corrects you on the left field/right field thing, great stuff.

   Reply
4. Oscar says:

   August 23, 2007 at 11:45 pm

   Great Job, Love the site bro!!

   Reply
5. debora says:

   August 23, 2007 at 4:05 pm

   tv video is cool

   Reply
6. Robert says:

   August 22, 2007 at 5:55 pm

   Nice interview Kev… but you could cut back on the coffee! LOL.

   Reply
7. James says:

   August 22, 2007 at 3:02 pm

   Great interview, very informative. Letts looks like he is completely amused at your antics (and your makeup, LMAO !!!)

   The ending was great, you do need to smoke a joint Kayvon, maybe calm down a bit, LOL, still a hilarious bit, keep up the good work!!!

   James

   Reply
8. Venom says:

   August 21, 2007 at 11:13 pm

   Yeah, time to get rid of that teenager mustache!! You suck dork!!

   Reply